Young Kentucky fans had John Schlarman's No. 65 on their caps Saturday. (SEC Photo)
This one was for you John Schlarman. Kentucky opened Saturday’s game with Vanderbilt by taking an intentional delay of game penalty on its first offensive play when it did not have a left guard on the field — the position John Schlarman played during his UK career. After the penalty — which was declined by Vanderbilt — here came senior Landon Young wearing No. 65, Schlarman’s playing number, on the field.
It was a fitting tribute for Schlarman, who lost a two-year battle with cancer earlier this week. What was an even better tribute was that UK ran for 305 yards and won the game 38-35 in what has been a gut-wrenching last 48 hours for UK coaches, players and fans.
Kentucky players had “JS” stickers on their helmets. The Kroger Field scoreboard had “JS” on it.
“Loved Coach Schlarman like a father. We were all fighting back tears, but we started the game like he would have wanted us to,” center Drake Jackson posted on Twitter immediately after the game ended.
Quarterback Terry Wilson admitted the first play was emotional and said the game was to honor Schlarman.
“It has been a tough week for us all. We all have heavy hearts for his family. We wanted to honor him even before the game started and just show our respect,” Wilson said.
Linebacker Jamin Davis said losing Schlarman was rough all week for everyone.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said it was “important” to play well for Schlarman’s family even if it wasn’t easy because of the emotions everyone felt the last 48 hours.
“No getting around it was important to me and our team to honor John for the man he was and to continue his legacy,” Stoops said.
Stoops said UK staff members came up with the idea to honor Schlarman on the opening play and he was all for it. He also praised Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason for immediately being all-in with the play as well.
Young said during pregame it was decided to shift guard Luke Fortner to tackle and leave Schlarman’s spot on the line vacant before he would come in wearing Schlarman’s number.
“He was definitely looking down on us (today) and a bunch of guys on this team wanted to fight for him,” Young, who had to wipe away tears at one point during his postgame media session, said.
Stoops didn’t want to share what he told his team before the game other than the bottom line was to “honor John by playing the way he coached and lived his life” and UK did that with its offensive toughness and execution against Vanderbilt.
“We wanted to make sure (Schlarman’s wife) LeeAnne and the kids had a game ball with a W on it,” Stoops said.
The coach said there will be a private service for Schlarman Monday with a memorial service to follow at UK for coaches, players, UK staff members, ex-players and friends of the family.
